The 1960s political quandary tied to leasing the Western & Atlantic Railroad

Part II: The Western & Atlantic lease was the ‘biggest political football to hit the General Assembly in some time’

L&N Train 80 - 84 the Georgian at Atlanta, Georgia Union Station on April 15, 1963. (Photo by Roger Puta via Wikimedia Commons)

Click here for Part I

As the calendar turned to 1967, Georgia lawmakers faced a political quandary: the impending lease of the state-owned Western & Atlantic Railroad.

“Quite obviously, the matter is shaping up as the biggest political football to hit the General Assembly in some time,” state Senator Al Holloway of Albany said.[1]

In February 1967, the Georgia House of Representatives passed a resolution rejecting both the Southern and the L&N bids, sending the lease back to the State Properties Control Commission.